Category:Hobbies: Difference between revisions

Like crafts, hobbies can be fun activities that give you a break from adventuring. Also like crafts, hobbies do not actually require you to develop your character at all. A character created fresh can start most hobbies (the one exception is Chocobo Digging, which requires a minimum level 20 for a license), and generally require little initial investment (as opposed to crafts) as you only need the tools of the trade to begin. While any level 1 character can buy a pickaxe and head out to find places to mine, most places are infested with monsters, so leveling your character can give you safe access to more higher level areas.

With the exception of chocobo digging, there is no "skill" involved with hobbies, only set ways to perform. Harvesting, Excavating, Logging and Mining (H.E.L.M.) only require you to buy the appropriate tool, and use them on targets in monster infested areas. Gardening requires pots and the assistance of your moogle, and takes place in your mog house, though your moogle does most of the work. Gardening also is the best hobby if you don't want to have to level a character. Since it takes place entirely in your mog house, you never need adventure outside if you don't want to. Clamming takes place in one location, and is part of a game that can net you a good deal of loot, or lose it all if you overload your bucket and break it. Lastly, chocobo digging requires only that you hop on a chocobo, and feed it treats to get it to dig in any zone your chocobo can travel to.

Harvesting

Using a sickle, you travel into the lush green wilderness to gathers grasses, seeds, and other plants. The materials you obtain are most often used in clothcraft and gardening.

Excavation

Using a pickaxe, you travel through dungeons and bone yards to pick through the buried bones and find hidden treasures. Materials you obtain are most often used in bonecraft, and various other crafts as well.

Logging

Using a hatchet, you travel into the forests to chop logs, branches, fruit and fungus from trees. The materials you obtain are most often used in woodworking and cooking.

Mining

Using a pickaxe, you travel into caves, dungeons and mountainous regions to wrestle ore, gems and rocks from buried lodes. Materials you obtain are most often used in smithing and goldsmithing.

Chocobo Digging

Using bunches upon bunches of gysahl greens, you procure the use of a chocobo and head off to see what you can dig up. Chocobos will gladly dirty their beaks for a taste of these greens, and you can dig up quite a variety of items. Materials you obtain are varied, and depend largely on the area in which you are digging.

Gardening

With the help of your Moogle, you plant seeds and tend to them, hoping to grow fruitful results. Gardening takes place in your mog house, using pots and seeds, and can give various results, depending on species and how you care for them. Materials you obtain from gardening are most often used in cooking and goldsmithing.

Clamming

Using a bucket and shovel, you travel to the islands off the coast of Bibiki Bay. Here you try to see how much you can fit in one bucket without it breaking. Materials you obtain are used in a variety of crafts, or can be sold directly to a merchant for profit.

Multiple Hobbies and Hobby Bonuses

There are no limits to the number of hobbies you can participate in. Multiple hobbies may require lots of inventory and/or mog house space, so be prepared. All hobbies (except one) have armor sets that give bonuses to certain aspects of the trade. The exception is gardening, which instead uses furniture and a moghancement for gardening.

H.E.L.M.

Field Tunica Set (and the high quality Worker Tunica Set version)

Chocobo Digging

Chocobo Jack Coat Set (and the high quality Rider's Jack Coat Set version), Chocobo Wand and Egg Helm

Clamming

A high quality two piece swimsuit (race specific) obtained from the Sunbreeze Festival

Gardening

Moghancement: Gardening

HorizonXI HELM System

The introduction of Treasures of Aht Urhgan on the 7th of August 2026 introduced a custom HELM system to the server.

Note: The following information is taken from the HELM thread of the official forum and reflects what has been found out so far.

Skill System

The patch introduced a skill system with separate skills for each HELM category (harvesting, excavating, logging, mining).

• Pursuing a HELM activity will occasionally increase the skill in the respective HELM activity, indicated by a skillup message.
• Each area has a designated skill cap and cannot give skillups beyond that cap.
• Some items cannot be obtained until a certain level is reached.

Although not part of the ingame GUI, Skills can be tracked on the official horizon page when logging in and checking your own character page.

Fatigue System

After a certain amount of items obtained in one HELM category, the player will reach a fatigue cap for that HELM category, which can be identified by obtaining a message on your HELM attempts stating that you won't be finding much more here. This fatigue cap increases with the skill level and is tied to the zone: When reaching fatigue in one zone, a player can move to another zone and keep HELMing. Furthermore, the fatigue will not decrease through time. The only way to decrease fatigue in one area is to HELM in another area.

Example: You excavate in Tahrongi Canyon until reaching fatigue. Then switch to the Maze of Shakhrami and continue to excavate there. Each item you excavate in the Maze of Shakhrami regenerates your fatigue in Tahrongi Canyon (and all other zones) by one.

Addons

an approved addon for HELM + Digging is HGather which tracks the items gathered can subtract the value of tool from your profit when you break a pick, sickle, or hatchet and has customizable numbers for items, so you can track against current AH or NPC prices.

https://github.com/samson-ffxi/HGather

Crafts
Alchemy     Bonecraft     Clothcraft     Cooking     Fishing     Goldsmithing     Leathercraft     Smithing     Woodworking
Hobbies
Digging     Clamming     Excavation     Gardening     Harvesting     Logging     Mining